Marketing is an important aspect of any successful business. Unfortunately, though many businesses invest significant resources in marketing, many businesses do not perform marketing effectively and/or do not know how to measure the effectiveness of the marketing efforts.
Typically, marketing efforts are expected to find, keep, and grow profitable customers. To find customers (acquisition), marketing focuses on processes and strategies for the acquisition of new customers and net new business. To keep customers (penetration), marketing focuses efforts on customer retention/renewals by attempting to keep customers engaged. In theory, engaged customers are more likely to stay. To grow profitable customers (monetization), marketing focuses on increasing the value of the customer base and on cross-selling efforts.
In tough economic times, marketing departments are under increased pressure to justify their spending, prove the effectiveness of their marketing investments, and demonstrate program success and value. Unfortunately, though the stated goals of the marketing efforts may appear to align with business goals, the link between the marketing effort and the desired business outcome remains undefined, and thus the value of the marketing effort is not clear.